The day is winding down, or has officially ended – depending what time zone you live in – as I write this I have crossed into Thursday. But for M.A.S.K. fans this was a special day. It was the release of the first issue of the new ongoing series from IDW Publishing. The series features Brandon Easton as the writer, Tony Vargas providing interior art, and Tommy Lee Edwards as the regular cover artist (there are also a number of variant covers as well).

This is going to be a somewhat comprehensive look at the issue, and as such will contain a certain degree of spoiling. If you do not want to be spoiled, well, you have been warned.

We are less than two days until the release of the new ongoing M.A.S.K. series from IDW Publishing, and it’s time to get excited! Brandon Easton, the writer of the series recently shared a picture of the copies he received, and I admit to being quite jealous.

Also, as always around here, better late than never. We’ve got two winners for my give-away. Carsten and Chad both sent in great memories of M.A.S.K. and will be receiving autographed copies of the M.A.S.K. one-shot. Look for emails asking for your addresses guys so I can send you your prizes!

Last, and certainly not least, if you are in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday, get over to The Comic Bug, where Brandon will be signing M.A.S.K. #1 as well as his new Vampire Hunter D series. I will be making a run down to get my hands on some copies, come out and support the series we all love.

I had a chance to go to Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comic Con today, so here are some thoughts and photos!

First and foremost, the most disappointing part of the event was that the big publishers were not to be seen, this includes IDW. That means that there was no official promotion for M.A.S.K. or Revolution. While that was a bit of a let down, it was awesome to have Brandon Easton there.

Brandon was part of a panel discussing diversity in entertainment. He had some great comments about the topic, and related some of them in particular to M.A.S.K. and his choice to change Matt Trakker. Regardless of your personal opinion, it is clear that Brandon seriously considered the topic and the value.

Brandon was pretty busy, so was not able to have a long conversation. He did, however, confirm that M.A.S.K. #1 is still on track to hit shelves November 23rd. Below are a few photos from the convention, if you also attended today, please feel free to post comments!

If you follow the Boulder-Hill.net Facebook (and you absolutely should), then you know that tonight’s update is about Revolution #2 and #3. Suffice it to say, many M.A.S.K. fans were left wanting with issue #1, which did not actually contain any of the M.A.S.K. agents (excluding the reprinted prelude). Issue #2 more than brings Matt, Miles and the rest of the team into the story.

I will not be providing an in-depth review of the issues on here. There are too many non-M.A.S.K. elements that I do not follow (ROM, Micronauts, etc.) and would make a comprehensive review pointless. What I will do is quickly breakdown the highlights from a M.A.S.K. standpoint.

First, we are once again treated to a slew of variant covers. Issue #2 in particular, has a bunch of covers that in fact feature M.A.S.K.

Revolution #2

Revolution #3

To be clear, there are more covers than the six above, however, these are the ones that have at least some element of M.A.S.K. The covers require a lot of analysis. Some are more M.A.S.K. centric than others. I find the Guido Guidi cover from #2 to be the most appealing. The image is dynamic, pays homage to Jack Kirby, and features M.A.S.K. front and center – not much more that a M.A.S.K. fan could ask for.

Now let’s jump to the issues themselves. For people following the series, you may be scratching your head at all the different groups and happenings. That is a symptom of this being the ‘event’ book. Revolution ties a bunch of different properties together, unless you are following every single book that is released you are bound to miss something. All that being said, even if you are only here for M.A.S.K. you should be able to follow the story relatively easily.Issue #2 has a lot of great M.A.S.K. action moments. Again, without giving any specifics away, readers are treated to an epic multi-page fight between M.A.S.K. and someone (read the book to find out). As is typical in big crossover events, there is a lot of action and there tends to be a little less subtle story telling. That holds true for issue #2, it is not a flaw, simply a fact to understand.

However! That does not mean that Revolution is all fights and explosions. Quite the contrary, in issue #3 we see some of the early stages of the strife building between Matt and Miles. All of which is handled quite well and creates a strong and natural path towards what we all know will be a disastrous ending for the two.

One other interesting thing, in issue #3 is that the we finally get the profile pages for Matt Trakker and Miles ‘Mayhem’ Manheim. Click on the individual images below to read them for yourself.

Finally, as promised, the details of how you can win your very own copy of M.A.S.K. Revolution, signed by Brandon Easton! To enter to win, all you have to do is write in with your favorite memory or experience with M.A.S.K., just send in an email and you will have your chance to win one of two copies, no purchase necessary! Please keep in mind that you will have to provide a mailing address to receive your comic if you are the winner.

That is going to wrap up this update. We are getting close to the release of M.A.S.K. #1 – the ongoing comic from IDW Publishing, for which many of us are holding our breath in anticipation. Please help to support IDW and the creatives behind Revolution and M.A.S.K. – even if you live in a country where purchasing comics is difficult keep in mind that all the issues are easily available for digital purchase. Let’s all do our part to ensure that illusion stays the ultimate weapon.

The release of Revolution M.A.S.K. #1 has kicked me into high gear. I wanted to share a couple of other fun M.A.S.K. items with visitors.

First up is a very special item. If you are interested enough to visit a site about M.A.S.K. then you probably recognize the name, Doug Stone. I was lucky enough to have one of my promotional cards signed by Doug Stone last year. For those who are still scratching their heads, Doug Stone is a voice actor from the original cartoon series. Doug provided the voices for Matt Trakker, Bruce Sato, Dusty Hayes and others.

The second item won’t be new, if you listen to MASKast, from Agents of M.A.S.K. I was invited to participate in a MASKast Chat. In it we reflect on all the exciting news that lead up to the release of Revolution M.A.S.K. #1. They released it in their podcast stream a few days ago, but as always, whenever I am a guest the episode can also be found in the Audio section.

That’s going to wrap it up for today. Until next time, please keep the crusade alive by supporting the new M.A.S.K. comic book series from IDW Publishing.

Happy belated M.A.S.K. day! This update is a little late, but that does not mean it is not going to be a great one. If you have been following the world of M.A.S.K. then you know that the big buzz is about the new comic book series from IDW. Issue #1 just hit the stands so now we are going to take a look at it.

Be warned, there will be some spoilers, so before you click forward – you have been warned!

The M.A.S.K. One-Shot hit shelves today. As much as I wish I could spend the entire day doing nothing but reading and reviewing, life is busy, so that will have to wait. But until then, here are a few pics of my morning visit with Brandon Easton.

Please forgive any formatting issues. In order to get this up as fast as I could I am using my phone. For those of you curious as to why there are so many copies in the first photo, well, they are not all for me! I will be giving a bunch away soon. The details will be announced soon. In the meantime, get down to your local comic book store and support M.A.S.K.!

That’s right, if you’re any kind of M.A.S.K. fan then you know that the buzz is all about comics! IDW! Revolution! M.A.S.K.!

Two days ago, Revolution #1 hit shelves. It released with a bunch of variant covers as well. And because this is Boulder-Hill.net, you can guess which ones I picked up. Obviously, the M.A.S.K. ones.

Both of these had been revealed online, but it’s great to have them in print finally. As you can see, the wraparound cover has a great shot of Brad Turner running with some of his over Revolution buddies, including Optimus Prime and Cobra Commander. And the other cover has the great bust image of the new and updated look for the Matt Trakker.

Ok, so a small thing to note. M.A.S.K. does not appear in the regular story of issue #1. The issue is jam packed with great action, and I’m sure Matt and the agents will be making their appearance soon. However, if you are a die-hard M.A.S.K. fan don’t be disappointed. There is an additional preview at the back of the issue that does contain M.A.S.K., or really VENOM elements. If you want to see that preview, it’s up in the Comics section right now!